


Lamp in the Dark

by simulatedstrawberries



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Drabble, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 11:46:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5495924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simulatedstrawberries/pseuds/simulatedstrawberries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Elicchi,” Nozomi murmurs uncharacteristically softly, “I want to hear you sing.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lamp in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> Short drabble based on a cute prompt I saw awhile ago. Self-indulgent fluff, basically. I love these two so much, ugh.

18\. "I want to hear you sing".

 

 Eli sighs in relief as the erratic breaths of the girl in bed before her finally begin to ebb.  The sound in the room is reduced to only the soft ticking of a clock, and she watches Nozomi as her chest rises and falls with it, enveloped by the warmth of the string lights that form a canopy above her bed.

“No more nightmares, okay?” Eli says from her seat on the side of Nozomi’s bed, hand cascading slowly through a lock of purple hair.

Nozomi nods, her sleepy green eyes forming half-moons. “They aren’t as bad with you here,” she murmurs, carefully lacing her fingers with Eli’s, “you make this apartment a lot less....lonely.”

Lonely. Eli lets the word linger in her mind for a moment, and she imagines a young Nozomi in her apartment all by herself, making all her own meals and doing homework at an empty table, going to bed alone and waking up alone. She moves closer and gives Nozomi’s hand a squeeze, hair tumbling over her shoulder, appearing orange in the light.

For a few moments there’s silence, and they don’t need to say anything. It’s been like this for as long as they have known each other. They ate their first meals together on the roof mostly in silence, walked the halls together in silence, did student council work in silence. There was a strange intimacy in knowing someone shared your feelings while saying nothing at all.

“Elicchi,” Nozomi murmurs uncharacteristically softly, breaking the silence. She pulls a blanket meekly over her nose, “I want to hear you sing.”

“Eh?” Eli blinks, “What’s with that, Nozomi? You hear me sing every day.”

Nozomi shakes her head and laughs weakly. “I don’t mean how you sing in front of everyone...” She buries herself further under the covers, emerald eyes peeking out at Eli over the top of her large comforter, “I want to hear the cute and clever Elichika sing a song only for me.”

Eli’s heart thuds loudly in her chest, and she has to hold herself back from flinging herself at Nozomi because she’s just _so_ _damn cute._ She considers reprimanding her for using her childhood nickname, but isn’t about to deny Nozomi of anything in her current ragged state.

“Jeez, who’s the spoiled one now?” Eli chides teasingly, and in a moment she’s lying next to Nozomi on her mountain of pillows, pulling their foreheads together until they’re touching.

Nozomi only giggles and flashes Eli’s favorite toothy grin.

Eli has to wrack her brain for a few moments, her memories taking her back to her bedroom in Russia, where her mother would sing her softly to sleep as snow blanketed the world outside. “Well, there is this old Russian lullaby I know, but that’s....”

“Sing, sing!” Nozomi tugs eagerly at the front of Eli’s shirt, and she laughs because she’s acting just like a spoiled child.  

“Alright, alright,” Eli sighs, and pushes a strand of Nozomi’s hair behind her ear.

When Eli begins to sing, her voice comes out breathy and soft, lilting gently as her memory floods with thoughts of Russia, of her grandmother’s cookies, of falling asleep bathed in the warmth of the lamp dividing the darkness of her old room.

Nozomi’s eyelids begin to droop, eyelashes fluttering like butterflies landing on her cheeks. Her chest begins to rise and fall slowly, already fast asleep before Eli can finish her song.

“Goodnight, Nozomi,” Eli whispers, gently kissing her cheek and wriggling underneath the blankets with her. She intertwines her legs with Nozomi’s and holds her hands, listening to the steady drum of her heartbeat. She smiles in the dim light at the girl before her — the girl who had gotten so used to brushing her fears under the rug with a laugh and a grin; the girl who had lived alone for so long without a single complaint.

For as long as Nozomi needs her to, Eli decides, she’ll be her lamp in the dark.  

  



End file.
